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CHIANG RAI – Mae Suai Police Superintendent, Pol Col Vicharn Churith has told Thai media that an additional charge of attempted murder has been filed against the assistant village headman for the fatal shooting of Mr Sornchai Sithiitrakthamrong at a road checkpoint in Mae Suai district of Chiang Rai on the night of January 2.

A police source said that the police officers in charge of the case agreed to add an additional charge against Mr Wutthichai Injai, the assistant village head of Ban Pa Hiang, because the dead victim’s girlfriend, Ms Sirirat Yaepieng, was travelling in the same car but escaped the bullets.

Wutthichai was earlier charged with murder and is now being held in Chiang Rai provincial court’s detention facility. He was denied bail posted by his lawyer after police protested against the bail request.

The trajectory indicated that deadly bullet came from the road checkpoint manned by a group of assistant village headmen, Wutthichai.

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Pol Maj-Gen Churat Panngao, deuty commissioner of Region Five Provincial Police Bureau and Mae Suai police superintendent, Pol Col Vicharn Churith, inspected the crime scene to gather more detailed information about the trajectory of the fatal bullet allegedly fired from Mr Wutthidchai’s gun and from villagers who might have witnessed the incident.

Pol Maj-Gen Churat told the media that police wanted as much evidence as possible about the case as there are still some issues which needed to be cleared up.

He added that police were awaiting result from forensic police in Lampang about the type of gun being used in the fatal shooting.